Law and regulation

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry soundly rejected Thursday the possibility of creating a "safe space" for fintech firms to operate outside of consumer protection rules while they develop and test new products.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has received five deposit insurance applications so far this year – an indication that the agency's open-for-business message is being heard by the industry.

Employee termination notices sent by Wells Fargo to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority raise new questions about the bank's knowledge of fraudulent account openings and indicate it may have taken retaliatory measures against potential whistleblowers, three Democratic senators alleged Thursday.

No matter the outcome of the divisive 2016 election, the many regulations still in the pipeline from banking regulators are not going to come to a screeching halt when the next president takes the helm in January.

The agency released a plan last week that would stipulate that newly constructed homes financed by the Federal Housing Administration would have to be elevated two feet above the 100-year-based flood level.

Wells Fargo & Co. said the Securities and Exchange Commission is among regulators investigating the bank's sales practices following a scandal involving employees opening unauthorized customer accounts.

The former chairman of the failed Premier Bank in Wilmette, Ill., was sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit Wednesday against two New York debt collectors for deceiving and harassing millions of consumers to pay inflated debts.

If modified, the cybersecurity standards in New York State are a step in the right direction to protect banks and consumers.

A lot of analytical horsepower is being spent on what will happen to the markets after the election, but it seems to make more sense to talk about what will not change for consumers, investors and financial institutions.

If Sen. Sherrod Brown becomes chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he is likely to focus on toughening rules on the biggest banks, conducting oversight of scandals like the one at Wells Fargo and granting regulatory relief to smaller institutions.

Some former customers of First Niagara Bank in Buffalo, N.Y., which was bought by KeyCorp last month, will receive up to $22 million in refunds of overdraft and bounced-check fees, according to a recently disclosed regulatory order.

WASHINGTON — Morris Morgan, a longtime veteran of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, will become its next senior deputy comptroller for large-bank supervision, the agency said Tuesday.

The new cryptocurrency allows users to selectively disclose information about their transactions to authorized parties without exposing it to the world. That feature could make blockchains more appealing to financial institutions, but maybe less so for regulators.

In a speech defending his support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel faulted both major parties for letting recent financial bubbles occur under their watch.

Citigroup Inc. disclosed a new government probe involving the industry's trading and clearing of interest-rate swaps five months after paying $425 million to resolve claims that it attempted to rig derivatives markets.

The president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank is best known for her dissenting votes on monetary policy, but that's not the only way she stands out. Her background as a farmer and former bank examiner gives her a unique perspective among Fed officials.

As banks grow and their business models become more complex, some find that adding a general counsel to the staff makes sense. Bank SNB in Stillwater, Okla., says hiring one allowed it to reduce its legal fees by 80%. Here are the pros and cons.

Mortgage brokers were among the companies that received the regulator's warning letters, but brokers are not required to report HMDA data — leading many to suspect mini-correspondents, which straddle the line between broker and lender, were the recipients.